Local PG&E workers fly to Florida to help after Hurricane Irma strikes

FPL has pre-staged approximately 16,000 people at the Daytona International Speedway awaiting the all clear to deploy and assist. More than 76,000 people in the state are already without power, according to Gov. Rick Scott.

According to the Florida Power and Light company's power tracker, more than 50,000 of the outages are located in Miami-Dade county. In Broward, more than a third of FPL's customers - 360,750 out of 933,300 - were without power.

If all those households do lose power, then it could be the largest number of outages any utility company has ever had to grapple with, FPL spokesman Chris McGrath told reporters. "We have to be ever vigilant", Gould said. "This is a historic storm, as you've seen, and we do expect that millions of customers could be impacted by this before it's all said and done".

Irma's winds have rivaled the strongest for any hurricane in history in the Atlantic, whereas Harvey's damage came from record rainfall.

The $3.8 million, five-year-old building off Military Trail, constructed to withstand a Category 5 storm, lost power as feeder bands from Irma pounded the state. Emera's Tampa Electric utility said the storm could affect up to 500,000 of the 730,000 homes and businesses it serves.

Electricity generator Florida Power & Light, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc, generates enough power for about 1.9 million homes at the Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants.